Thoughts While Nursing A Recruiting Hangover

I have a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head right now. Since learning of Teague’s decision earlier today, I’ve been debating whether or not to post, and if so, what exactly to say. Let me start by saying that I’m as big a U of L fan as anyone on this board. I was born and raised here and nothing that happens could ever sway my allegiance to, or love for, this university and its athletic program. That being said, recently, I can’t help but feel like every time I turn around I have to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge the pieces of the sky that are falling down around me. I know this is most certainly an over-reaction to today’s news, but things just don’t seem to be going our way lately. Jeremy Tyler foregoes his last year in high school to go pro overseas, Fab Melo (a lock by most accounts) goes to Syracuse, Justin Coleman (the only player in the incoming class that makes the class worth talking about, my apologies to Elisha Justice, but he’s not a major difference maker on a team that desperately needs one) may not be eligible, Michael Chandler non-decommits, and now Teague (another lock until a month ago) picks UK over us.

The Teague incident is the one that disturbs me most. I think that the people who say that what happened today doesn’t matter are delusional. I don’t say this because of the talent that this kid has, but because of the perception it creates. Pitino did everything but pay Teague to come to Louisville. He coached his dad, he’s recruited him since he was a freshman, he hired his AAU coach to Louisville’s staff and after all that, Calipari swoops in at the eleventh hour and gets the kid to go to UK without ever even setting foot on campus for a visit.

To compound this, Chandler decides he’s open to hearing from other teams. Now, the speculation is out there that we told him to check his other options because his grades might not be up to par. While this may very well be the case, that isn’t the perception because he or his uncle or whomever from his camp jumped out in front and said Chandler had decided not to come here. In today’s world, perception is far too often seen to be reality.

It doesn’t really matter what these two could have provided on the court because the more pertinent problem is that I feel the decisions of these two teenagers are severely damaging to the University of Louisville’s and Rick Pitino’s brand. My real fear is: what does this say to other top level recruits that are considering Louisville? How do we get the best players to come here if we are continually unable to get the best players to come here? I know that doesn’t sound like it makes sense, but the logic behind it is, if highly talented kids keep seeing other highly talented kids decide over and over not to come here, I fear that they will be less inclined to come here.

I don’t mean to discredit or disrespect any player that is currently on the team, because I know the talent is there, but we all know that Pitino himself, along with many of the fans I know and many of the people on this site, has been touting the 2011 class and putting many of his eggs in that basket. Now, two of those players are likely gone. Listening to local sports talk radio today, the discussion centered around Pitino needing to alter his recruiting (translation: find out who Cal wants and the look elsewhere). Color me naive, but I believe Louisville to be a brand name in college basketball that should not have to recruit around other schools because we can’t compete with them for top talent.

Now, don’t confuse any of this with me implying that I want to be UK and sell our souls for the all the one-and-dones we can give scholarships to. I do believe, however, that if you want to win championships you have to get one or two guys at, or very near, that level to go along with your two, three, and four year guys. Maybe I’m wrong.

This post is also not a call for Pitino’s job. More than anything, this post is me needing to vent. I’m frustrated after getting embarrassed multiple times last season and now seeing what we’ve all thought to be the savior of a recruiting class start to slowly crumble. I do, however, think that Rick needs to change something, but what that something is, I don’t know. Maybe his style of play, to get these types of guys. Maybe his staff, to close these types of guys (a side note: I think us losing Richard Pitino was more indescribably damaging to our recruiting). Maybe his recruiting, to not go after these guys at all. Like I said, I don’t really know.

Again, I apologize for going on so long. I know most have stopped reading by now, but I needed to vent. Rest assured though, my passion and love for this team will not be diminished. I will, thanks to returning to U of L for grad school after a finishing up my undergrad career there five years ago, have season tickets again and be in attendance for every game, cheering and screaming as loud as I ever have.

GO CARDS!!

I’m a KY Wildcat fan who just doesn’t see why there should be so much animosity between our respective fan bases. Last year when Louisville was making it’s run through the fine season and tournament I was rooting for them. After all they are a team in my home state, they are coached by a coach who did so much for our own program. I was sad when RP left BBN for Boston, mostly because his style of play was fun to watch. And I wished him well. As the playing style of our new coach, TS became apparent, I was sad that it was such a boring way to play the game. But he was a tremendous representative of the program. Complete class all the way. Then we got BG. I had only one encounter with him and he as a very rude person. He acted like I was taking up his precious time and scowled the entire time he was signing my program. Then word started getting out about how our boys were being treated. He was very rude to the fan base. He ignored all of the things the previous coaches had done to promote the program. Argued with his bosses. He was a real problem and thank God they took care of it.
I Know Dr. Lee Todd and our Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart are 1000 Percent committed to running a clean program at KY. Sandy Bell, our compliance officer is top notch and makes sure everybody knows the rules and abides by them. No one wants our program being run with anything underhanded going on. Coach Calipari was explicitly told that compliance with the rules is the only thing allowed in this administration.
My husband and I have had only I encounter with Coach Cal and I can not begin to tell you how gracious he was. It was the day after our Hoops for Haiti telethon where over $1.3-4 million dollars was raised for the earthquake relief effort there that my husband and I decided to go to eat dinner at a restaurant that was giving all their profit for the day to the Haiti relief effort. When we got to the restaurant we bought Hoops for Haiti tshirts and put them on over what we were wearing so that we could enjoy the atmosphere in that restaurant of doing something more important than yourself. We were there early and knew that we would be missing coach Cal’s visit to the restaurant. because he was do to come over after his call-in radio show by which time we would be long gone. Well we were surprised while eating our salads who comes over to shake our hands and talk to us but Coach Cal who doesn’t know us from Adam. He thanks us for supporting the relief effort and talks about how important it is to keep helping them. He was the nicest man you will ever meet. He truly believes the position he has been put in is to try to use it to help as many people as possible.
I don’t know if many of you Louiville fans have actually heard very many of his interviews. He is trying to help people to be more positive. He goes to mass every day. He endeavours to live in the light and believes if you know you are doing the right thing and you have a clear conscience then you just let all the haters go, pray for them, then let it go.
I wonder how many of you know that it was Cal that turned the Marcus Camby incident in to the NCAA. He could have kept it quiet. But he didn’t. He knew it would cost them but he did it anyway. That’s why he himself was in the clear. It was one player being selfish who harmed his team, his teammates and his coaching staff. How you could prevent it outside of making the basketball program into the Gestapo with Gestapo agents following players everywhere they go. And no one would play under those kind of circumstances.
As far as the Derrick Rose issue they sought twice to the NCAA Clearinghouse to make sure he was eligible. Twice the Clearinghouse said yes he’s OK to play. Remember coaches aren’t allowed to be with the players while they are taking their ACTs & SATs. Coach Cal was counting on the Clearinghouse to do their job and they are the ones that failed. In my personal opinion the NCAA should have to shoulder the burden for this debacle. How in the world will coaches be able to trust that their players really were eligible to play when the Clearinghouse clears the player then after the season says oh no we made a mistake he wasn’t eligible you’ll have to erase all your wins. The NCAA is a joke.
So all this brings me to this afternoon’s news about Marquis Teague choosing KY over Louisville. Personally, I think in Cal’s system the players are the stars, not the coach. In Pitino’s system it’s all about Ricky P. At least that’s how it was when he was at UK. The players love the style of play that Cal plays and he’s not afraid to change things around to suit his players talents, This year he had Cousins so he went inside alot more. Pitino’s known for his hard practices, for not calling his players very nice names, Wayne Turner once said after Pitino left that there were times it was all he could do to keep himself from hitting Coach Pitino because of the verbal abuse.
Did you see how much fun our players were having this year? It was obvious they got along great with coach Cal. As a player wouldn’t you want to have fun?
Anyway, I just wanted to get some info out there that many Louisville fans may not have been aware of and to wish you all well. I’m sure there will be recruits you win and we lose. That’s the nature of the beast. I will root for Louiville to win in every game except when they play UK.

how people see the same events with drastically different interpretations. For the record I don’t hate Cal or UK, I don’t cheer for them either, I just don’t care about them at all. I only like UofL and no other team interests me in the least. I don’t know why so many UK fans hate UofL, why do they care so much? I guess we could say the same thing about UofL fans that hate UK. Didn’t the Camby thing get resolved after Cal was already in the NBA? Why did he check a clearing house twice, did he perceive a problem and was looking for a defense when the NCAA came calling? Have you seen how your nice version of Cal talked to Reggie Delk during the UK UofL game? Didn’t look like the rosy picture your painting at all. Why did a bunch of frosh hate UofL so much? Perhaps they were influenced, sure worked on Bledsoe in the incident I’m siting. Are you at UK practices? I have seen how Cal talks to his players during games I doubt he’s any different during practice. I’m sure the publicity his program got from his charity drive was never a motivation (although I really don’t care about his motive as long as he helped), but you can see how the event looks from the outside looking in. Have you ever heard about the charity auction he crashed to boost his own ego, yeah real class act. He will tell you all what you want to hear and you guys just soak it up, funny how you didn’t when he was at Memphis. I think he’s a fraud myself but he gets the job done and when it comes to sports that’s all I really care about. I know it looks like I hate Cal from what I have put in, I really don’t I have just been watching him play against UofL for a long time and I’m skeptical about the guy he seems phony to me. If you guys win with him at the helm then good for you as long as it doesn’t keep us from winning, like I said, I really don’t care how good or bad UK does, but I won’t fall for this fraud’s tricks either.

penultimate means “next to last.” (It’s in the original post.)

Since we learned of Teague’s decision, I’ve seen a lot of Louisville fans saying they don’t blame Rick Pitino because he did everything he could. In fact, most ask what more could he have done. I agree Pitino did everything he could have done, but the fact he did everything he could possibly do and still lost is the major problem.

Not having Teague is not the end of the world, but the perception created by his decision not to attend Louisville is the real stealth killer. Let’s face it, his choice did not go unnoticed by high schoolers across the country. For more than two years, it’s been assumed Teague was ours, but Cal changed his mind at the last minute. That’s going to have a lot of prospects wondering what’s wrong with Louisville.

As I said yesterday, Teague’s decision caused me to decide I’m ready for a coaching change. I didn’t come to that conclusion because of Teague only though. I came to this decision because of the accumulation of events that have taken place over the last year and even before that. My view is they are creating a sour brew that is hurting the program.

When you add together the spotty recruiting of the previous four or five years, the constant mind games with players, the odd substitution patterns, the poor performance against MSU, the lackluster assistant coaching staff, the bad 2010 season and the likely bad 2011 season, the Teague decision, and of course the Karen Sypher drama, it gives the impression Louisville is a program in real trouble. All that happened in 12 calendar months, by the way.

I know a lot people will strongly disagree with my view and that’s fine, but I think the time for hoping is over. For instance, many give Pitino credit for Lang, Telfair, Smith, Johnson, Tyler, and others who never made it to school. The line is Pitino has just been bitten by bad luck. Well, ok if it were only one or two instances, by it’s been many. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me seven or eight times, shame on me.

I know Pitino is not going to retire or resign so I’m just flapping my gums, but I do think everyone involved would be better off if a change was made. If Rick decides he wants to coach the first season in the new arena, I’m cool with that, but, short of a miraculous turnaround, I hope 2011 is his swan song.

I find it a tad hypocritical to accuse Cal of doing something shady in his recruitment of Teague when Pitino hired one the assistant coaches from his high school. Cal is Shady? Cal is Slimy? What do you call that move by Pitino? It is kinda funny how that little tidbit seems to be ignored by most people here. It is even more funny that even after that ploy, he still didn’t get Teague. If that assistant coach magically leaves UL soon, I think that is what the NCAA should look at.

Hiring someone’s former AAU coach is one thing — shady, yes. Illegal, no. Something to be proud of? Not at all.

But a mysterious agent-type figure with connections to pro agents, shoe companies, and pro athletes, one who operates in the shadows of the recruiting world with influence that is both undeniable and not fully explainable, is another thing entirely. More shady than hiring someone’s former AAU coach? No question. Not even comparable.

That does not mean that anything illicit happened in Teague’s recruitment. I have no idea whether it did, nor does anyone else here (as far as I know). But to equate Pitino with Cal in the shadiness department is a bad joke, and the UK trolls here who insist on doing so are kidding themselves.

One further point — a recruiting violation as an assistant coach at the outset of a career 30+ years ago is not even in the same ballpark as a head coach who presided over two Final Four appearances at two different schools that were each vacated due to NCAA violations. Did the NCAA point the finger directly at Cal? No. But to equate that with exoneration is, at best, illogical. Trouble has followed Cal to each of his head coaching stints for a reason, and that reason isn’t bad luck.

I would like to see this whole “all recruiting is shady in college basketball, everyone does the same stuff” notion put to rest. That is a myth. If it comforts UK fans to tell themselves that, fine. But I would prefer that they comfort themselves with this sort of crap on their own boards.